And now beloved friends, we entreat you by the mercies of God, and the love of a Saviour, and the duty you owe to the immortal souls committed to your care, to take the subject of this address into serious consideration, and begin the practice, and we cannot but hope you will be convinced of the reasonableness of family prayer, and be induced to praetice it. 2dly, If you consider that the daily practice of this duty in your families is founded in the relation you bear to God as his reasonable creatures; your necessary dependence on him for being, life, and all things you need; the obligations of gratitude you are under to him as your preserver and benefactor, and the regard you owe to the souls committed to your care. 3dly, Consider that the time is, near at hand, when we must all appear before. Ged in the eternal world, to render unto him an account of the improvement of our time, opportunities and talents; how we have performed the duties incumbent on us in our seve ral stations and relations, and managed the: important trusts committed to us in this world; and we ought seriously to consider that he will require at our hands those whom he hath committed to our charge. Let these considerations awaken you to a diligent and faithful discharge of all the duties you owe to those who are under your immediate care, and in particular the duty of exemplifying your instructions by praying with them, that if, (notwithstanding all your instructions, prayers, counsels and admonitions,) they should be drawn into the vortex of sinful pleasure, by

the temptations of an ensnaring world, and finally lose their souls, their ruin may not be chargeable to your account in the great day.

In this address we speak to you, beloved friends, in the fulness of our hearts, and from a sensible concern for your future happiness, and the happiness of your families, that if it shall please God to bless our endeavours, you may be quickened to the diligent use of the means, and the practice of the duties of religion, by which it may be insured to you, and to your's.

In this recommendation of family prayer, we are fully convinced that it is the duty of all, whatever their character, to awake from their stupidity, and call upon God that they perish not. Yet we speak principally to those heads of families who are regular in their lives and conversations; who have a rational conviction of the truth of religion, the being, perfections and providence of God, their necessary dependence on him for every blessing; their guilt, weakness and misery, and need of his help and mercy, and the reasonableness of their praying to him for needed mercies; but at the same time wish to have some assistance in this duty, that they may perform it in a manner better adapted to edification than extempore prayers.

While we inculcate the expediency and reasonableness of family prayer, and offer these helps to the performance of this duty, we entreat you brethren ever to bear in mind that prayer and other instrumental duties are only means, which God in his divine wisdom

hath appointed, for your obtaining the renewing influence of his spirit to write upon your hearts those two great and comprehensive laws of his moral kingdom: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself; and thereby qualify you for the everlasting enjoyment of that kiugdom.

Beware then of resting in a form of godliness without the power thereof; if you do, however constant and exemplary you may be in prayer and other positive duties of religion, your hope of future happiness founded on these things will issue in shame, confusion and despair. These things you ought to have done, and not leave the other, justice, mercy and truth, the necessary effects of a principle of divine love in the heart, undone. We only add our fervent prayers to the Father of lights and mercies, that the happy period may be hastened which will supercede these helps of devotion, when the spirit of grace and suppli cation shall be poured out, when they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord; for they shall all know him from the least of them to the greatest; and when prayers and praises to God, dictated by a spirit of pure and fervent devotion, shall ascend before his throne from every family and dwelling place of Mount Zion....AMEN.

Advice relative to the service of the Sanctuary.

TO be early at the house of God, in order to obtain the blessing on leaving it, thereby uniting, with devout affectious fixed on God, joining our hearts with our lips in every part of the worship. To attend with seriousness during the exhortation, as it points out to us the great duty we are come upon-When we pronounce the general confession of our sins, to recollect our secret ones-When the abso lution is reading, we ought most humbly to beg our share therein, and when the Psalms and Hymns are repeating, to raise our souls, and rejoice in God for the great blessings commemorated in them-While the lessons are reading, to observe what particular instructions, reproofs, or consolations arise to us from any part of them-In the collects and the litany, to endeavour to lift up our hearts to God to obtain the blessings we ask of him-In the thanksgiving, to unite in an humble acknowledgment of the mercies received from God-When we make confession of our faith with one voice, be sure we unite with it the belief of our heartsWhile the commandments are repeating, to endeavour to recollect our former sins, and the infirmities of our nature, together with the temptations to which we are exposed. And to stand when we are engaged in that sublime part of worship, Singing of praise to God. Whenever we hear sermons (not however with a view to criticise, and censure him who officiates*) but as

"Reverence your minister, he is a wise and good man, and one who has a tender care and respect for you, do not therefore grieve him, either by neglect or disrespect, if there be any person

those who are desirous to become more wise and better for them.-Thus we ought to behave in the house of God, and to think it our duty also to attend to the several parts of the afternoon service. The command obliges us to keep the sabbath day holy, and the honour and service of God calls for our attendance on both parts of the day, agreeably to the sentiments of professor Gilbert, of Leipsic, printed in his life in 1775. "We think too lightly on the duties on Sunday. I am convinced that a religious employment of this sacred day, is one indispensable mean, and indeed the most salutary of all, to promote our progress in religion and piety. To make a serious examination of our hearts a to lift them up to heaven; to strengthen our minds with the truth of faith: this is to fortify for the whole week, and prepare ourselves in the discharging of our domestic duties and call, ings with fidelity. He who employs the Sab bath well, can he make a bad use of the week? He who passes this day ill, can he think himself obliged to employ well the following days?* Hear me therefore, whoever you are, that cast your eyes upon this paper, it is the employment of Sunday, on which that of the whole week depends.'

who endeavours to set you against him, that person loves not you, nor the office he bears, and as Divine Providence has placed him near you, I do expect you will pay suitable attention to him, for his own, for yours, and for his office sake.

Sir Matthew Hale's Advice to his family.

*It is a common observation, that public criminals, going to the place of execution, and making their dying declarations to the world, frequently charge their sinful courses, in which they have lived, to their neglect and profanation of the Lord's Day as the first and chief occasion of leading them into those enormities that had brought them to their untimely end.